Boy's family apologizes for school threat

Some of the hundreds of Twin Peaks Middle School students leave the campus after school on Monday. A 12-year-old boy, a student at the school, faces possible felony charges after authorities say he threatened via email to carry out a mass shooting at the school on Monday.
— Don Boomer

Some of the hundreds of Twin Peaks Middle School students leave the campus after school on Monday. A 12-year-old boy, a student at the school, faces possible felony charges after authorities say he threatened via email to carry out a mass shooting at the school on Monday.
— Don Boomer

POWAY  The family of a 12-year-old boy arrested over the weekend on suspicion of threatening to carry out a mass shooting at his Poway school apologized Monday for the threat and said the boy had no intention or ability to carry it out.

He “is dealing with emotional problems, while also coping with one parent’s battle with cancer,” the family said in a statement issued through the boy’s attorney, Douglas C. Brown.

The boy, who has not been named publicly, is a seventh-grader at Twin Peaks Middle School. He was arrested Saturday after authorities and school officials said he sent the school’s principal an email late Friday night containing a threat to shoot a specific teacher and 23 unnamed classmates at the campus.

Principal Kelly Burke opened the email Saturday morning and immediately notified law enforcement, Poway Unified Superintendent John Collins said during a news conference Monday.

Less than nine hours after the principal reported the email, investigators identified the child as a suspect and arrested him at his Poway home. There, investigators seized 11 guns, all of which had been under lock and key, authorities said.

In the statement Monday, the family said the weapons — five rifles, three shotguns and three handguns — were not accessible to the child.

After the boy was arrested, he was hospitalized for evaluation, the Sheriff’s Department said. Investigators will present the case to prosecutors Tuesday or Wednesday, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.

Arrested on suspicion of making terrorist threats, the child could face felony charges and the case would be handled in Juvenile Court. Under state law, no one younger than 14 can be tried as an adult.

Boy's family issues statement

The family of the 12 year old boy, arrested this weekend for an email directed at the Twin Peaks Middle School, would like to offer its heartfelt apology to the teachers, students, and the San Diego community. The weapons seized by law enforcement were safely secured and locked, so that they were at all times inaccessible to the minor. The minor had no intention or ability to carry out any threats. Presently, the minor is receiving, and will continue to receive, mental health treatment. The child is dealing with emotional problems, while also coping with one parent's battle with cancer.

The family is profoundly sorry, and will do all within its power to assure the minor has continuing mental health treatment.

Source: Family's lawyer, Douglas C. Brown

The student will not be returning to Twin Peaks until the investigation is completed. The district will also complete its own disciplinary procedures, Collins said.

The district is not releasing the names of the student or targeted teacher, he said. He also would say if the teacher was at school Monday.

Collins praised the swift response by the Sheriff’s Department and noted that the district’s safety procedures were successfully followed.

“This is a good example that the system works,” he said.

Uniformed and plainclothes deputies were on campus Monday, and the district dispatched extra staff members and counselors.

Some parents said they kept their children home Monday because of the threat, but attendance levels were “fairly typical for a Monday morning” in flu season, Collins said.

Official attendance numbers were not available.

Seventh-grader Alex Mendez said 11 students were missing from his first-period class. Another student, Jacob Vaus, told his father that half of his physical education class was absent.

Poway Councilman Steve Vaus said he “was not at all hesitant” about letting his eighth-grade son, Jacob, attend school Monday.

“This is probably the safest day in the history of Twin Peaks,” Vaus said.

Parent Mirna Ramos said her son, seventh-grader Alex Mendez, was hesitant to go to school.

“I said, ‘It’s going to be OK. The police are here,’” Ramos said.

Parent Amy Te said news of the school shooting threat created some worry at first, but with the extra security she felt the school would be safe.

“I was comfortable being here,” said Te’s son, James Leung, an eighth-grader. “Everything was normal.”

The threat came two months after a man killed 20 students and six adults in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. That event sparked a national debate over gun control, and led to new federal proposals to ban assault weapons, reduce the number of bullets a magazine can hold and require stricter background checks of gun buyers.